Pronoun (source code)
= Pronoun
A <pronoun> is a member of a grammatical category whose uses commonly occupy nominal positions while their interpretation is recovered from context. A previous <noun phrase> can supply that context, but is not required: `I` can identify the current speaker without repeating an earlier name.<Universal Dependencies annotation guidelines>[PRON, Definition and personal-pronoun examples]{ref}
Consider `The robot moved beside the box. It stopped.` Under a stipulated reading where both objects are possible referents, the spelling `it` alone does not select one. <Grammatical number> and <syntax> can constrain the possibilities while leaving a contextual decision unresolved. The category of the expression and the identity of its referent are distinct annotation questions.
The border with <determiners> also depends on the adopted scheme. <Universal Dependencies> documents `PRON` and `DET` using characteristic distribution and language-specific conventions. An explicit inventory helps compare <text corpus> annotations without assuming that a familiar label always covers exactly the same words in every <language>.
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